古

Stroke order

Stroke order

古 (Kangxi radical 30, 口+2, 5 strokes, cangjie input 十口 (JR), four-corner 4060₀, composition ⿱十口)

1. Shuowen Jiezi radical №53

• 估, 咕, 姑, 岵, 怙, 𢫈, 沽, 狜, 枯, 㱠, 𤇌, 牯, 祜, 𦙶, 䀦, 秙, 𧙖, 䊀, 䑩, 蛄, 詁 (诂), 跍, 軲 (轱), 酤, 鈷 (钴), 𩚩, 𦹵, 骷, 𡪻, 鮕, 𡳰
• 故, 胡, 㼋, 瓳, 䎁, 𨐒, 𠸙, 䧸, 嘏, 𦹯, 鴣 (鸪)
• 克, 㕝, 怘, 㖛, 辜, 㕆, 呄, 㝒, 居, 苦, 㽽, 𥥖, 罟, 䇢, 啇, 𠸗
• 𣭎, 固, 㑸, 𤚦, 䀇, 䂋

• Kangxi Dictionary: page 171, character 8
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 3233
• Dae Jaweon: page 380, character 6
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 1, page 568, character 3
• Unihan data for U+53E4

Wikipedia has articles on:

• 古 (Written Standard Chinese^?)
• 古姓 (Written Standard Chinese^?)
• 古氏 (Cantonese)
• Kó͘ (khió-pêng) (Southern Min)

Historical forms of the character 古
Shang	Western Zhou	Warring States	Shuowen Jiezi (compiled in Han)	Liushutong (compiled in Ming)
Oracle bone script	Bronze inscriptions	Chu slip and silk script	Small seal script	Transcribed ancient scripts

Ideogram (指事) : A shield (十, contraction of 盾 and similar but unrelated to 中) and the radical of the mouth (口) both as a distinguishing mark and as a component that partly indicates pronunciation. Together, they indicate the concept of "strong, firm" (as strong as a shield); original form of 固 (OC *kaːs) (Qiu Xigui, Ding Shan 丁山). Later, the meaning of "solid, firm" shifted to "antiquity" for unclear reasons. Compare oracle bone forms with 干, 盾. Unrelated to 中 and hence to 史 and 使.

Fang (1982) finds evidence for the 十 component originally being a depiction of a piece of food and the character originally being a depiction of someone spitting out a piece of food due to his bad taste. Thus, Fang argues this character is the original form of 苦 (kǔ), "bitter".

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *r-ga (“old”). Cognate with 故 (OC *kaːs, “old things; former; dead”) and Tibetan རྒ (rga, “to be old; aged”).

古

1. the past; ancient times

   古今  ―  gǔjīn  ―  ancient and modern times

2. old; ancient
3. classic; old-styled
4. simple; unaffected; unsophisticated
5. things in the past; antiquities; history
6. (Cantonese, Hakka, Southern Min) story (Classifier: 段 c)

   講古／讲古 [Cantonese]  ―  gong² gu²   ―  to tell a story

7. Short for 古體詩／古体诗 (gǔtǐshī, “ancient-style poem”).
8. a surname

   古天樂／古天乐 [Cantonese]  ―  gu² tin¹ lok⁶   ―  Louis Koo Tin-lok (Hong Kong actor)

Others:

• → Vietnamese: cũ

古

1. ^† Alternative form of 固 (gù)
2. ^† Alternative form of 故 (gù)

古

1. ^† Only used in 古成.

• “古”, in 漢語多功能字庫 (Multi-function Chinese Character Database)‎, 香港中文大學 (the Chinese University of Hong Kong), 2014–

(Second grade kyōiku kanji)

• Go-on: く (ku)
• Kan-on: こ (ko, Jōyō)
• Kun: ふるい (furui, 古い, Jōyō)、ふるす (furusu, 古す, Jōyō)、いにしえ (inishie, 古)^{←いにしへ (inisife, 古, historical)}

Stem of adjective 古い (furui, “old”).

• (Tokyo) ふる (Atamadaka – )^[1]
• IPA^(key):

古(ふる) • (furu) 

1. used item, secondhand item, hand-me-down

古(ふる) • (furu-) 

1. paleo-, old, used, previous

古 (eumhun 옛 고 (yet go))

1. hanja form^? of 고 (“old; ancient”)

古: Hán Việt readings: cổ (公(công)土(thổ)切(thiết))^{[1][2][3][4][5]}
古: Nôm readings: cổ^{[1][2][4][5][6]}, cỗ^{[2][3][7][4][6]}, của^[1][2], có^[1], cỏ^[1], kẻ^[3]

古 • (cổ)

1. chữ Hán form of cổ (“ancient; old”).

古 • (cổ, của)

1. Nôm form of cổ (“neck”).
2. Nôm form of của (“property; belongings”).